Letter from London: Show me the carbon

Transition policies must recognise that significant industrial demand for carbon will continue even as economies hit net zero

“Even in an electrified world, carbon will remain a finite resource to be stewarded with the same discipline as land and water,” said Eveline Speelman, partner at system design company Systemiq, in a recent report by Energy Transitions Commission (ETC). This view may have wrongfooted policymakers gathering in Brazil for COP30 in mid-November. After all, the decarbonisation strategies of governments signed up to the Paris Agreement are dominated by plans to mitigate CO₂ by ramping up the deployment of renewables and electric vehicles. However, the ETC’s report—Carbon in an electrified future: Technologies, trade-offs and pathways—delivered a reminder to policymakers that the transition to net